The Infinity Stone
by ClockwerkOrange
Summary: When Piper finds one of the second most powerful crystals known to exist, she discovers its ability to let her see into and experience universes that could've been, but weren't. Her trespassing in the multiverse leads to repercussions, good and bad, in her own world, and it draws two people closer together across space and time. Contains Cyper.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **

**The best way to explain this story is that it is a series of AU snippets combined in a single master narrative, which is based in the canon SH world. There will be some scattered Cyper in a few spots, and it'll increase the further the story progresses. Here's hoping that I can put out chapters fast enough to be tolerable. I wrote a few chapters in advance before posting the story, but they need to be looked over again before submission, so they won't all be submitted at once. There will, however, will be a handful of updates in a relatively short time.  
**

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Piper landed her heliscooter and cut the engine abruptly. Within seconds of touching down in the bay, she was already on her feet with the prize of her expedition clutched carefully in her hand. The leather bag she had it carefully enclosed in would keep it insulated until she could perform a thorough study.

She was ecstatic. During her trip to Terra Volta, she had been initially disappointed when she uncovered the crystal – dodging electrical storms that were more dangerous than those of even Cyclonia itself had not been a fun experience. Neither had been hiking through barren, rocky terrain in search of the Helix Crystal, a fabled crystal rumored to be the most powerful in the world.

Those rumors turned out to be false – at least when it came to Terra Volta. Rather than picking up the Helix Crystal she had been looking for, she found the next best thing: an Infinity Stone.

Initially, she had been furious. The Helix Crystal was meant to be her big break as an up-and-coming crystal mage. Claiming the legendary crystal not just for herself, but for the Storm Hawks and the side of good in the battle against Cyclonia would have been an excellent ending to her two-day trek. However, it was just not meant to be. She had to make do with the consolation prize, which shared with the Helix Crystal only its shape and a sliver of its mythological status.

It certainly didn't help that the Helix Crystal might still be out there, somewhere in the Atmos. Piper had never really gotten over the vision from the Storm Hawks' faux pas of straying into the Atmos' Great Expanse. She didn't like the idea of her ex-friend, archenemy, and foremost competitor Master Cyclonis appearing near anything that Piper desired most, much less a crystal that would guarantee victory for whichever side possessed it. The idea of Cyclonis somehow getting her slender fingers around Piper's crystal made her skin crawl.

With a shrug, Piper resolved to continue looking for leads on the Helix Crystal, but make the best of uncovering an Infinity Stone. She absentmindedly tossed the bag carrying the aforementioned item into the air and caught it again. It had some weight to it, but she hadn't gotten a very good look at it in the thick of the storm.

"Hey, Piper, you're back!" Junko exclaimed as she strolled into the kitchen. Finn lifted his head from his seat at the kitchen table.

"Yeah, hey," Piper greeted. "I didn't find the Helix Crystal, but I found something almost as good."

"Like what?" Junko asked blankly while shoving a whole apple into his mouth.

Piper shook the leather satchel and gestured at it with a flourish. "I've got an Infinity Stone right here – only two other ones have ever been found, and they've disappeared over the ages, so this is the only known one in the Atmos!"

"Oh, yeah?" Finn asked excitedly. "Can we rig it up to the cannons and blow Cyclonian capital ships right out of the sky?"

Piper lowered the bag and put her finger on her chin. "Well, not exactly. I'd have to make a transformer to limit the output, which I'm guessing would be high. I should probably run some tests…"

Her response seemed to poke a hole in Finn's mood immediately.

"Well, hey, what if you plugged it up to the ship? We wouldn't need fuel, right?" Junko asked good-naturedly, nodding jovially between Finn and Piper.

Piper frowned. "Well, not exactly… depending on whether or not it outputs energy constantly, it might not work. That, and for safety reasons, we should never rely on a single crystal to power an entire ship."

Finn nodded briefly. "So, uh, what _can_ it do?"

"Well…" Piper trailed off, frown still evident on her face. She couldn't really come up with an answer.

Feeling both embarrassed and unprepared to present a subject she knew little about, she decided to excuse herself quietly and go perform some tests. After all, it was one of the most powerful crystals ever mentioned in history! It had to have _some_ practical application. The last one to be discovered had even been used to shield an entire terra from an invasion, which was an incredible feat of crystal engineering.

Regrettably, Piper thought to herself on her way to her room, that event had supposedly happened several hundred years ago. She had no idea how to replicate such a feat with existing technology, nor did she know if it had even really happened – at least to the degree that the story had claimed.

With a sigh, Piper dropped the bag on her worktable and pulled a few wires, crystal components, and tools out from the drawer. She intended to measure the crystal's output to have a rough idea of how to build a transformer for it. If she was unlucky, she would need to hunt for some high voltage supplies next time they stopped in Terra Atmosia, and in the absolute worst case scenario she would have to appeal to the council herself to see if she could borrow their power grid.

Setting her meter aside, she held onto the bottom of the bag and carefully tilted it so that the crystal rolled gently onto the table. As she returned the bag to the corner of the worktable, the palm of her hand grazed the crystal.

In the wake of a sudden, piercing white glow emanating from the Infinity Stone, Piper shrank back in surprise and confusion. It was too late, however, and her last glimpse was of her hands thrown in front of herself defensively, the image of which was burned into her vision by the blinding light of the stone. Then came the inevitable fade to black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Reviews are always appreciated.**

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Piper shifted slightly in bed, only vaguely registering that she was teetering at the threshold between the waking world and sleep. She hazily figured that she should probably get up soon instead of sleeping in, but between being contentedly warm and very comfortable, she dismissed the idea.

Once she turned over slightly onto her right side, she ran her left hand over on top of the blanket and pulled it over herself a bit more tightly. She was about to drift back to sleep when a creeping sensation seemed to spring from her spine. It was dead silent. There was no distant hum of the _Condor_'s engine, nor was there a dull ambient sound of the wind whistling past outside.

Piper shot up, brushed her hair from her eyes, and looked around. Only a few painted portraits along the walls ranging from austere to downright macabre greeted her, with nothing but dark gray stone walls behind them. A nightstand made of a dark, stained wood was placed beside her bed to the left. Matching pieces of furniture – a dresser, a wardrobe, even a phonograph on a table – dotted the wall behind it, just beside a dreary wooden door, which was one of the two in the room. The closest one likely led to a closet.

After letting the visuals sink in, Piper tossed the blanket off and sprang to her feet. The ebony floors felt cold on her bare feet, so she honed in on the closet door. She felt rather exposed wearing only dark gray underwear, which happened to match the grim motif of the room, along with everything in it.

When she swung open the closet door, the dim orange morning light sinking in through the thin curtains revealed two rows of more or less identical outfits – Master Cyclonis' robes. Piper took an uncertain step back, straining to remember how she had ended up in the bedroom.

The crystal, she thought anxiously. Obviously, she had been teleported somehow, or perhaps forced into some manner of a dream.

She brushed her thoughts aside and considered her options on escaping her situation. The best idea would be to get dressed – naturally – and try to casually slip out of Cyclonis' quarters; once she had done that, she could make it to the streets and locate a skimmer.

She snatched one of Cyclonis' shirts from the rack and pulled it on over her head quickly. Once she had pushed both of her arms through the fabric and straightened the leather padding, she experienced a dim sense of recognition. Shrugging the unexpected déjà vu off, she strolled over to the dresser and grabbed a pair of pants, which she inspected appreciatively before putting on. They were certainly of a higher quality than the handmade, secondhand, or hastily repaired clothes that she had been forced to wear, which was some consolation for the situation, she supposed. They even fit perfectly.

Once she had slipped them on and straightened her shirt over them, Piper froze in response to a sudden knock at the door.

"Master Cyclonis?" asked a voice that Piper dreaded – the Dark Ace himself was knocking. "Your presence is requested in the throne room."

Piper quickly grabbed a pair of boots, pulled them on quickly, and then went immediately to the window.

"Master Cyclonis?" the Dark Ace repeated with a few more knocks, but this time with a twinge of uncertainty in his voice. "Are you there?"

Piper threw the curtains to each side and was about to unlatch the window when she saw the view. She was easily on the seventh or eighth story of the tower – the window was a disturbing height from the ground. She would definitely not be able to climb out of her predicament.

She glanced back in time to see the Dark Ace open the door and peek inside.

"Oh, sorry for intruding, Master," he apologized with a nod. "I wasn't sure if you could hear me."

Piper gave him a wide-eyed, flabbergasted stare.

The Dark Ace raised an eyebrow at her expression, but continued. "The Raptors are due in the throne room in a few minutes. Don't forget your cloak."

"Alright," Piper managed weakly. "I'll be down once I… grab my cloak."

The Dark Ace nodded, leaned back out of the room, and closed the door behind him.

This must be some kind of dream, Piper thought with a frown. She crossed back to the other side of the room and lifted the rather ominous-looking cloak from its rack, and slipped it on. Once she had properly adjusted the hood and drew the cloak around herself, she felt an odd sense of propriety in spite of herself.

She strolled over to the door that the Dark Ace had excused himself out of, and stepped through it. The ebony floors had extended to this hallway, and with a profound, albeit unexplainable sense of direction, she immediately set out for the stairway to the right, which looped downward into a foyer with somber purple carpets, a chandelier bearing black candles, and an overall extension upon the gray-black-purple color scheme.

Piper grimaced. The situation was overwhelming – she woke up in Cyclonis' quarters, was being addressed as Master Cyclonis, and she suddenly knew the way to the throne room, even though there was no way for her to possess that sort of knowledge.

Speaking of the throne room, she thought, I'm here. After a cursory examination of the large wooden door and its iron knocker, she pushed it open and stepped into the throne room where an expectant Dark Ace and a few Raptors were waiting.

"Master Cyclonis," the lead Raptor, Repton, acknowledged meekly. His squadron members seemed to shrink behind him as Piper made her way to the center of the room.

"Hello," was all Piper could manage as she dropped back onto the throne. The surrealism of the scene – the Raptors quaking in their boots in front of her – was very disquieting.

"Tell Master Cyclonis what you told me," the Dark Ace said sternly to the cowering reptiles.

Repton cleared his throat. "We tried to keep the Storm Hawks from reaching the library, but they broke a pillar in the ruins… and by the time we dug our skimmers out of the rubble, they were gone with the scroll."

Every eye on the room was on Piper, so rather than ponder how the Storm Hawks had put together and executed a plan to leave the Raptors in the dust without her – the concept seemed farfetched – she decided to say whatever she could to send the Raptors away and have some personal time to think about the situation.

"Well," she began, tugging at her collar self-consciously, "I suppose you've all learned a thing or two over the course of your mission."

He stared blankly at Piper. One of his henchmen standing behind Repton elbowed him and whispered, "_Say yes!_"

"Uh, yes. Yes, Master Cyclonis," Repton stated firmly with a humble nod.

"And if the same thing were to happen again, would you be better prepared next time?" Piper asked carefully.

Repton, eyebrow raised, nodded stupidly. "Of course. Yes, we would."

"Well, then you're free to go until I need your services again. But don't fail me a second time," Piper added in a rather unconvincing attempt at throwing in an ominous, Cyclonis-ey threat.

"Really?" Repton asked blankly.

Once Piper nodded a confirmation, he bowed repeatedly as he and his squadron members hastily exited the throne room, obviously not wanting to test her patience, since Master Cyclonis was prone to acts of fury even when she was at her most reasonable.

"Did you just let them off with a warning… master?" the Dark Ace asked once the hardwood door slammed shut at the end of the spacious hall. "Of course, it's not my place to judge."

Piper stood and shrugged. "It's, uh… not a big deal."

The Dark Ace's eyebrow raised slowly until it reached the highest heights of confusion. "Are you feeling well?"

"Fine," Piper replied quickly. "I'm going to head to my study if there's nothing else."

Leaving the dumbstruck Dark Ace to question his master's suddenly reasonable disposition, she climbed back up the stairs and instinctively opened the door to the study. She paused behind the heavy oak chair, and placed her hands on it carefully.

She kept feeling a nagging sense of déjà vu – and, now that she thought of it, she distinctly remembered having been working in the room just the other day, despite knowing for a fact that she had been in the _Condor_ just before waking up in "her" room.

With a finger pressed against her chin in a curious gesture, she leaned over the chair and glanced over a few of the open scrolls on the desk. The corner of Piper's mouth crept up in a smile when she realized that this strange alternate reality could be capitalized upon – secrets to concepts Piper hadn't yet mastered had been set out just for her. She briefly acknowledged that if this _was_ all some kind of dream, then it would be impossible for her to dream up methods to using crystals in ways she didn't comprehend… but it was worth a try anyway.

Piper pulled out the chair and set to work, reading through some scrolls that had been left open. A few were hard to understand, but slowly the sense of déjà vu began filling in mental blanks, and after reading for a few minutes, she even began to recall writing the information down herself. She dropped the scroll she was reading when she understood, quite abruptly, the formula for personal, crystal-induced flight.

She felt a twinge of uncertainty after the initial epiphany, however, and decided to reread it to check. As she rose from her chair and leaned down to snatch up the scroll, she locked eyes with none other than the _real_ Master Cyclonis, who was hiding right underneath her desk with a shocked stare.

"Uh…" Piper began uncertainly.

Cyclonis didn't give her an opportunity to finish, because she immediately leaped out from under the desk and grabbed Piper's scroll. Piper, stunned, watched as Cyclonis scrambled to her feet and began bolting for the door. However, she ended up tripping on the corner of the rug and crashing to the floor.

Piper walked over to her calmly, but Cyclonis flipped over and regarded her with a frightened expression similar to that of a deer being hunted.

"That's a Storm Hawk uniform," Piper said absently, for the first time taking in what the intruder was wearing. It was remarkably similar to Piper's uniform. "That's funny." She nodded knowingly – in this world, Piper and Cyclonis had inexplicably switched places.

"Wh-what are you going to do to me?" Cyclonis squeaked while raising her hands in front of her face.

Piper's eyes went wide for a few seconds, but then she burst out in laughter. She would never have expected such a display from Master Cyclonis, the fearsome ruler of Cyclonia – at least in her world. Piper offered a hand to help her up, prompting the prone girl to drop her jaw in surprise. She uncertainly accepted the hand, and was quickly on her feet.

"I don't understand…" Cyclonis said quietly. "You're Master Cyclonis."

Piper shrugged. "Actually, in another time and another place, that's you."

"Huh? I'm Lark."

Piper cleared her throat. She was almost certain then that the situation was not a dream – she had truly been transplanted into another world. As such, she figured she shouldn't throw off the balance too far.

"For reasons I can't really explain, in another world, I was a Storm Hawk and you were the leader of Cyclonia. If I manage to wake up, or somehow get back to my world, then you'll be dealing with your version of Master Cyclonis again, so I'm pretty sure I won't be helping you then," Piper explained with a chuckle. She gestured to the scroll. "But right now, since you seem to have gone to a lot of trouble to break in here to take that… I guess it's yours now."

Cyclonis' face lit up. "Really?"

"Sure," Piper replied. "Just don't try to return it. I might not be as pleasant."

Piper watched as Cyclonis nodded, pocketed the scroll, and grabbed her in a rather forceful hug. Cyclonis released her, and then proceeded to leap up the bookshelves like a squirrel, grab the vent cover, slip through, and shut it behind her, leaving Piper behind. Piper had been standing still through Cyclonis' exit, glowing an embarrassed red and feeling rather flustered.

After coming to her senses, she decided to tidy up the scrolls that she'd left on the desk to take her mind off of what had just occurred. Once that was completed, she stumbled across a box full of crystals in the drawer of scrolls, and upon going through them, recognized a few relatively rare ones.

It would've been fantastic if I'd had a selection like these back on the _Condor_, Piper thought longingly. She stopped when she recognized a white stone near the bottom. The Infinity Stone, she realized. Upon picking it up, the world's colors faded, and everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

Piper lifted her head from her desk dizzily. Once she blinked a few times to clear her vision, she saw the Infinity Stone and shrank back from it as if it were the plague.

"I'm… back," Piper said to no one in particular as she glanced around her room. Once she stood up, she patted her arms and belly a few times just to make sure she was in one piece after her ordeal. She summed herself up as relatively healthy, but a bit thirsty.

Traversing the halls to the kitchen was a pretty tame adventure, but Piper made sure to take her steps carefully, since she still felt a lingering sense of disorientation from earlier.

She replayed the course of the crystal-induced occurrence over in her head along the way, and after arriving in front of the fridge, filling up a cup of water, and taking a cool, refreshing gulp, she happened to recall Cyclonis' manner of expressing her gratitude, as well as the subsequent warm fuzzies she herself had felt afterward, and she promptly began to choke on her drink.

"Piper, are you okay?" Aerrow asked in a concerned tone, putting down a plate he had been carrying.

"Fine," Piper managed to squeeze out in between coughing fits. Once they settled down, she looked over at him. "I'm good. Didn't realize you were in here."

"Yeah, I just walked in." Aerrow glanced around and tapped his foot a few times on the floor. "Piper, I wanted to ask you something."

Piper finished off the glass of water carefully, so as to not provoke another fit, and then placed it down on the counter. "What's up?"

"Well, you know, we've known each other for a while," Aerrow began, glancing at the clock on the wall.

"More than a while," Piper agreed with a smirk.

Aerrow chuckled. "Yeah. And, I mean, I was wondering if maybe next time we get some spare time on a terra, we could do something. You know, just us."

If Piper had been drinking something right then, it probably would've killed her.

"What, like… a _date_?" Piper asked in a small voice. "Like, boyfriend-girlfriend?"

Aerrow nodded after a moment's hesitation, meeting her eyes for a second or two.

Piper put on a small smile. She liked Aerrow; she really did. She just didn't like him like _that_. It was an awkward situation, and she was trying not to blush out of embarrassment. Putting him down gently would require a sensitive explanation, and bright red cheeks might send the wrong message.

"Well, I mean, I respect you. And we're good friends," she began pleasantly. "But I don't think that starting a relationship in the middle of everything going on out there is a good idea for us, or for the team. I really think we should just stay friends, Aerrow." She raised an eyebrow. "Is that okay?"

Aerrow didn't say anything for a few seconds, but once the words seemed to register, he nodded a couple of times. "No, no, I understand. You're right; that makes sense. Forget I said anything, I guess," he suggested, and began strolling down the other hallway, opposite of the one Piper had entered the kitchen from. "See you."

As Piper heard his footsteps lead down the hall, she leaned back against the fridge, feeling terrible. She couldn't even begin to fathom how long Aerrow must have been waiting to ask her, nor how long he must have wanted to. Being met with a refusal so clinical and calculated must have been a kick in the gut, she thought unhappily.

There was a certain measure of defiance in her psyche, however. Why should she feel bad that Aerrow had feelings that weren't reciprocated? And to spring it on her like that, when she had never even considered that he might feel that way? If the alternative was encouraging feelings that she did not share, then there was nothing wrong with turning him down.

Her thoughts inevitably turned back to the – "more pressing" would have been a cruel term to use – issue of the Infinity Stone. As if a light bulb had gone off above her head, she remembered that she had gained the knowledge of how to fly. Piper immediately returned to her room and began sorting through crystals. She took care to match them exactly with the crystals that had been on the scroll.

Once the crystals were measured, she collected them and dropped them into the crystal recombinator machine she had just under the desk, and flipped the switch. After a few moments of waiting and watching the meters intently, the crystals she had dropped in had been reduced to gray dust, and the inert crystal at the opposite side had been imbued with the necessary energies to give it an odd, pulsating mauve glow.

Piper snatched up the crystal, and once she held it in her palm, she unconsciously began rising a few inches above her chair. She noticed her sudden change in elevation with a gasp, and that small movement sent her drifting up toward the ceiling. She straightened out and willed herself to the door, and that proved to be all that was necessary – she sailed lazily into the hall, and with a laugh half born of incredulity and half pure joy, she rounded a corner flying a foot above a terrified Stork, and dropped to her feet with a negligible impact.

Stork's jaw almost fell off. "What." It was a statement, not a question.

Piper held the newly-crafted mauve crystal between her thumb and index finger with a grin.

Stork recovered quickly to his usual gloomy self. "Don't fly around in the bridge, then, I guess… or I'll need a bigger flyswatter."

Piper returned to her room excitedly, floating down to a victorious pose on her chair with her feet up on her desk. She looked back to the Infinity Stone with pursed lips. Using her own powers of observation, she was able to learn secrets from other worlds that she may have never otherwise discovered – it was unparalleled as a learning tool. Besides, nothing bad could happen if it was just a peek into another world. She was just observing, not putting herself in danger just for knowledge, right?

With a guilty grin, she carefully put the mauve Flight Crystal in the drawer, and then placed her hand on the Infinity Stone.


	4. Chapter 4

Terra Bluster was a large, rocky terra dotted with coniferous forests and snow-capped mountains. It was officially owned by the Cyclonian Empire, but it enjoyed a bit of pseudo-sovereignty since the military governor, Snipe, was usually off on Talon business, and leadership was left to the local council. Prior to being taken over by Cyclonia, Terra Bluster had been engaged in a war with Terra Nimbus for over twenty years. Once both terras had been annexed by Cyclonia, their standards of living had actually improved.

Piper had definitely seen conditions around the terra improve since she was adopted by the local crystal mage when she was just a tiny little girl. A couple of years before, there were no bright windows radiating with the glow of a fireplace inside, or chimneys putting out little lines of smoke into the dreary sky. However, crystal and metal mining in the mountains and a carefully-regulated timber trade had brought much commerce to the cold, lonely terra.

The clouds were gray, and being caught out in the rain would probably soak Piper through to the bone and leave her freezing, considering it was one of the first days of winter. With this in mind, she walked quickly down the cobblestone street, careful to avoid running into the other pedestrians who were wrapped up in layers of warm clothing just as she was.

She arrived at the correct storefront, from which hung a sign reading "Cormorant & Sons Fine Crystal Shoppe" in ornate font. The sign itself was frayed and old. To put things into perspective, only the younger son still worked there, and he was around fifty – Piper's adoptive father, Curlew.

Piper inspected the crystals on display just past the glass as she walked by. They were finely-cut crystals of different shapes and colors, each with a small tag indicating its function. Curlew had told her that there once were several crystal shops on the main street, but that now only Cormorant & Sons and a specialty store on the east end selling cheaper crystals were still around.

"I'm back," Piper called over the ring of the little entrance bell as she stepped through the door.

There was a shuffling sound from behind the door to the storeroom. "Great," Curlew called from the back. "Just put the bag on the counter and I'll toss it in the icebox in a moment. Thanks for going out; I had to get things ready – make sure you look presentable for our guests!"

Piper dropped the bag of groceries on the counter and ran up the stairs to the second-story apartment. When she reached her room, she tossed her jacket on the bed and began changing into the dress she had set out previously. Once that was complete, she gave herself a cursory glance in the mirror. After taking her hairband off and giving her hair a nice combing, she straightened the ribbon around her dress and made sure everything else was in the right place.

She sighed. Here she was, wearing rather nice clothes, working as an apprentice in a crystal workshop just like she always dreamed. It was definitely a far cry from the Piper of a few years ago – the one that wandered in front of the store and looked longingly at the displays, wearing clothes that seemed little more than stitched rags. That was when Mr. Cormorant had come to investigate why she had gravitated to his store, and over the course of a few days he had decided to adopt her from the orphanage. She couldn't have hoped for a better turn of events.

Satisfied with her appearance, she went back down the stairs to the store. The groceries were gone from the counter, and in their place Curlew was quickly selecting a few choice crystals from a padlocked trunk.

"Oh, good, you're dressed," he said quickly before glancing back down to his selections. He began sorting them carefully onto a velvet mat he had placed on the counter. "Now, be very polite. Don't say anything unless you're asked a question," he recommended as he flipped the trunk closed and locked the padlock.

"I understand," Piper replied with a nod.

Curlew was an older man in his fifties, with graying but neatly combed hair and a carefully trimmed moustache. He was the epitome of the wise crystal mage, even though he tended to lean toward wearing a collared shirt and suspenders rather than going for the robe and staff approach.

His eyebrows raised when the entrance bell rang, and a dark, thin figure stepped through. She was a tall, imposing older woman with long gray hair, piercing purple eyes, and a long, flowing robe with an intimidatingly pointy-looking collar. Her cloak swished back and forth as she walked up to the counter with perfect posture. Only then did Piper notice the other girl, who seemed to be around sixteen or seventeen – Piper's age – following a few feet behind.

There was quite a resemblance between the younger girl and the tall woman – they were both rather pale to the point of seeming sickly, they were both rather thin in their complicated robes, and they both had those odd purple irises, although the younger girl's eyes seemed a little bigger and certainly softer. They reminded Piper of brightly-colored candy for some reason. Their eyes met, and the other girl's eyebrow raised uncertainly. Piper looked away with a frown. She hadn't wanted to be caught staring.

"Hello, Mister Cormorant," the woman greeted in a firm tone.

"Master Cyclonis," Curlew acknowledged, bowing slightly. Piper mimicked his gesture.

"I trust you have the crystals that I sent for?" the empress asked.

Curlew gestured to the carefully-polished gems placed on the velvet sheet. "Certainly. These should fit the bill nicely for your experiments."

"Excellent," she replied. She looked down at the girl, and then to Piper. "Cormorant, is there perhaps a place where they could wait while we discuss something of importance?"

Curlew nodded. "I suppose you two could wait in the lab. Piper, feel free to show her around, but make sure not to cause any explosions," he added seriously.

Piper's eyes widened, but she nodded despite her surprise. The other girl walked over silently and rounded behind the counter, and Piper gestured to the lab door. "It's just through here," she said quietly.

Once the door was shut behind them, the other girl began to inspect the area quizzically. "This looks like my lab back home, although this is a bit more… homey."

"You have your own lab?" Piper asked, immediately interested.

She nodded. "Oh, yes, but I haven't introduced myself. I'm Lark."

"My name's Piper."

Lark grinned. "To return to your question: yes, I do have my own lab. It's not as large or well-stocked as my grandmother's lab, however."

Piper raised an eyebrow. The store's lab looked like Lark's "small" lab? She shuddered to think what her grandmother's must look like. "So your grandmother is Master Cyclonis?"

Lark nodded, then pressed her forefinger to her chin in thought. "That's correct… I'd assume that Mister Cormorant was your father, but, among other things, your skin tones are really quite different. I don't recall having seen many people with your complexion."

"Well, I'm adopted. And, before the orphanage, I'm not exactly sure where I'm from, so I guess that's not too surprising," Piper explained with a shrug.

"Oh, I see. I apologize if I've mentioned a sensitive subject," Lark said stiffly.

Piper chuckled. "No, don't worry. It's fine." She glanced back at Lark with a quizzical expression, however. "Although, could I ask about your eyes? That's not exactly a common color."

"They've been passed down through the Cyclonis line. I assume that the eye color is a rare but dominant trait, since every descendant seems to inherit it," she explained in her regal tone.

"I think they're pretty," Piper said before she could stop herself.

The beginnings of a pink blush emerged on Lark's otherwise pale face. "Well, thank you," she managed to say politely.

Piper had to focus intently to not break out into a blush of her own, but then she cocked her head slightly when she heard something else. "Hm. They're still talking in there."

"Should we listen in?" Lark asked with a devious grin.

"We can do better than that. There's a gap under the door," Piper explained, and stepped over to the wall. She went down on her knees and then onto her side. "Come down here and we can peek through."

Once Lark was situated, Piper glanced upward from under the door and saw Curlew and Master Cyclonis standing in front of the counter, minus their upper shoulders and heads.

"You know, Curlew, you really must come and see the capital sometime," she suggested.

"Well, Terra Bluster has always been big enough of a city for me," he said. "The capital, though, is a little _too _big."

Master Cyclonis accepted the cloth bag of crystals. "I miss you, you know."

Piper raised an eyebrow in confusion, but stayed where she was. She did, however, feel an unexpected blush come across her face when she saw Curlew's hands around the _leader of the empire_'s waist, and although she couldn't see what transpired outside her field of vision, she could guess.

When she felt a light tap on her shoulder, she lifted her head from the door and regarded Lark with an embarrassed grimace.

"Piper," Lark said, trying out her name in a thoughtful, experimental tone, "what were they doing?"

Even though Piper felt a faint sense of déjà vu at Lark's mention of her name, she shrugged it off. "What do you mean? They were… well, I'm assuming they kissed."

"Oh," Lark said, rising to her feet. She stood quietly, and glanced around the room. "How so?"

Piper stood up as well, and brushed off her dress with a puzzled expression. "What do you mean by that? You know what kissing is, right?"

Lark pouted immediately, seemingly irritated with Piper's implication. "I've read books," she said, but then her expression softened somewhat. "Have you ever kissed anyone?"

Piper frowned. "Well, no," she said uncertainly, becoming aware that she and Lark were standing rather close together. Her gaze dropped somewhat out of embarrassment, but staring directly at the other girl's slender frame, partially obscured by a cloak, did little to stave it off.

"What are you looking at, exactly?" Lark asked, prompting Piper to glance up, even more self-conscious than before.

"I, uh…" Piper trailed off, finding it very difficult to think of words to fill the silence. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest, and she couldn't remember how she had ended up in the situation, nor how she could break out of it, nor whether she wanted to or not. It certainly didn't help her ability to keep calm and think when she felt Lark's hands around her own. Before she was able to process that, they drew closer, but she couldn't seem to tell which one of them had taken the step forward.

For a moment, Piper wondered at Lark's deep purple eyes, and flawless, but oddly pale skin. She knew that it would be hard to get the other girl's slight scent of lavender out of her head. She was faced with an urge to know more about the mysterious girl whom she had never met before, even though she felt as though she did – perhaps in another place, or another time.

Neither of them seemed to know if the other was supposed to make the first move, so Piper was rather surprised when Lark's arms looped around her waist, and she found her own held against her chest in a rather startled pose.

"Would you like to kiss, Piper?" Lark asked in an exceptionally direct manner.

"Well, yes and no!" Piper stammered, partially out of a want for propriety. "Generally, people kiss after they've known each other for a while, and, er… romance! Chemistry!" It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to grasp at words and coherent explanations.

The corners of Lark's mouth tilted up in a pleased smile that reminded Piper somewhat of a contented cat. "Is there chemistry between us, then?" she asked lowly.

"Well, I'm not saying there isn't," Piper explained sheepishly. "I'm just saying that something like, uh, kissing might be more appropriate after we've gotten to know one another… or gone out and done something together…"

"I'm making you very nervous, aren't I?" Lark asked, and when she was met with a nod, she pressed her lips gingerly against Piper's cheek.

Piper's cheeks ignited with a brilliant blush, but she raised an eyebrow in confusion. "That's all… you wanted to do?"

"What were you expecting?" Lark asked provocatively. She let the embrace fade away.

"Well, now I'm not so sure. But I think I know why Master Cyclonis came here in person now," Piper quipped, hoping to use humor to bring the situation – and her heartbeat – down to calmness.

Evidently Lark found her one-liner amusing, because she couldn't stop laughing. Piper was glad the stressful situation was defused, but there was still a measure of remorse in not prolonging it just a little bit more.

"You should persuade Mr. Cormorant to visit Cyclonia. It would be fun for me to show you around," she suggested with a smirk.

"Oh, but that reminds me," Piper recalled. "I still haven't shown you around the lab. I guess I got sidetracked," she added with a small smile. She gestured for Lark to come over to one of the barrels near the edge of the room. "We keep a lot of crystals on hand, even some rare ones. In this one, we've got a bunch of Solaris Crystals, which most shops don't carry… wait."

Piper had lifted off the lid of the barrel only to be greeted with a white, helix-shaped crystal on top of the pile of neatly-stacked yellow ones. She picked it up with a scrutinizing stare.

"The… the stone," Piper stammered, connecting the dots in her head as the crystal began to glow. She stared at Lark, who, quite understandably, had a rather quizzical expression on her face. "Oh, you've got to be kidding…"

And, just like that, the curtain fell on Piper's excursion.


End file.
